Kenyan Men Dominating Fall Marathons

Patrick Makau is the fastest of 38 Kenyans to win a fall marathon this year, posting a 2:05:08 in Berlin. Photo: PhotoRun.net

Patrick Makau is the fastest of 38 Kenyans to win a fall marathon this year, posting a 2:05:08 in Berlin. Photo: PhotoRun.net

A 90% winning percentage over 42 races isn’t too shabby.

Written by: David Monti
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

The dominance shown by Kenyan men since the unofficial opening of the fall marathon season in Montreal, Canada, on September 5, has been breathtaking. Of 42 marathons in 24 countries with international elite fields tracked by Race Results Weekly, men from Kenya have won 38 of them, a winning percentage of 90%. Ethiopian men have won the other four.

Athletes from other nations were ableo to win elite marathons during this period, however. But those races restricted either their fields or prize money purses, like the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in St. Paul, Minn., which served as the USA championship race for men, and the Lotto South African Marathon Championships in Durban.

Kenyan domination is likely to continue this weekend with international marathons on tap in Athens, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Nairobi and Podgorica. Yared Asmerom of Eritrea and Tadese Tola of Ethiopia are the only non-Kenyan men on the entry list for Sunday’s 29th Commerzbank Frankfurt Marathon. That race has this weekend’s strongest field featuring 18 men with personal best times under 2:10. The fastest are Tola and Kenyan Elijah Keitany, who have both run 2:06:41.

Here is the listing of the 42 fall marathon venues with their champions (chronological order):

Duncan Larkin

Duncan Larkin is a freelance journalist and author who’s been covering the sport of running for over a decade. He’s run 2:32 in the marathon and won the Himalayan 100-Mile Stage Race in 2007. He wrote the book RUN SIMPLE, and coaches runners of all abilities.
You can learn more about him here: http://roadsmillslaps.tumblr.com/about